Hide
Me Within Thy Wounds: The Persecution of the Catholic Church in
the USSR

Original Russian Text by I.I. Osipova, Moscow, Russia

Russian to English Translation by Malcom Gilbert

Germans from Russia Cultural Preservation Foundation, Fargo, North
Dakota and the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota
State University Libraries, Fargo, North Dakota, 2003, 219 pages,
softcover.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to announce
publication of this important work, Hide Me Within Thy Wounds:
The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the USSR. The author
writes in the Introduction: "On coming to power in 1917, the
Bolsheviks condemned religion as the 'opium of the people', and
persecution of the Church became for many years an integral part
of domestic policy in the Soviet Union."

"As early as January 1918 they issued a decree on the separation
of Church and state, and the laws deriving from it deprived all
religious groups of judicial rights and declared their possessions
of property of the nation. Such degrees provided the justification
for the mass seizure and destruction of churches, punitive measures
against the clergy and hounding of believers for their religious
convictions. The records of the 'organs' show that while 2,429 priests
were arrested in 1923-1924, the figure grew to 19,812 in 1931-1932.
The warriors for ideological purity made no distinctions. All groups
suffered: Orthodox and Catholic, Lutherans, Baptists and other Protestants,
Mennonites, Moslems, and Buddhists."

This book describing Soviet persecution of priests and believers
of various persuasions, is devoted to the Catholics. The history
of persecution of the Catholic Church in Russia from 1918 to its
almost complete annihilation in 1939, when only two function Catholic
churches remained, has been described in other books. The distinctive
feature of this book is that it makes available for academic study
and public judgment previously inaccessible material from the central
and regional archives of the Russian Federal Security Service and
the Ministry of Internal Affairs, The Ukrainian Central State Archives
of Public Administration, and the archives of security service in
the republics of the former USSR.

This account of the fate of Catholic clergy and laity caught up
and crushed in the machine of repression draws on material from
investigation records and personal files of prisoners, aggregate
returns of general Soviet camp administration (GULAG), and instructions
and coded telegrams of the secret police.

Father William C. Sherman who indexed the book writes: "This
book, Hide Me Within Thy Wounds, is a good sampling of
"what went on behind the scenes" as the various Communist
agencies labored to stamp out religion. Necessarily it can deal
with only a part of the picture: Thousands of religious leaders,
men and women of every denomination, were put in prisons. Interrogated
at length, sent to labor camps or executed. The full story will
involve a dozen future volumes. But Hide Me Within Thy Wounds
is a beginning. It's a chilling study. One stands in admiration
as we see from actual archival documents the cruel treatment of
the Russian, German and Polish victims whose only crime was to be
faithful to their beliefs. I was honored to compile the index to
the English version of this Hide Me Within Thy Wounds volume."
Father William C. Sherman is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology/Sociology,
North Dakota State University, Fargo. He is author and editor of
various books.

Father (later Bishop) Alexander Frison

Father Ludwig Erck

Father Leonard Eberle

These Russian priests, many of whom
were arrested upon ordination as part of the Soviets' contempt
for religion, were killed or died in prison. A group photograph
- sentenced priests in the Solovki prison camp.

This photo was taken in 1927 in front
of the Church in Josefstal/Volga, and it features the only known
photo of Father Falkenstein. He was deported to Siberia and
never heard from again. Photo courtesy of Barbara Schaab